Community Intellectual Rights

Farmers have been innovating collectively over centuries. The protection of their collective knowledge and rights is a central commitment for Navdanya. For this, Navdanya works with farmers' organisations to create awareness. We also work towards making farmers' rights the basis of IPR legislation at the national and international levels.

Navdanya has pioneered the concept of community biodiversity registers. We see the documentation of the resources and knowledge of communities at the local, regional, and national levels as serving two purposes. On one hand, it contributes to the rejuvenation of the ecological basis of agriculture. On the other hand, a national community registry built out of local registers serves as the basis for asserting farmers' prior intellectual innovations to set limits on IPR monopolies in agriculture.

Currently Navdanya is implementing Bija Yatra - a nation wide campaign aimed at creating debate and awareness towards the erosion and extinction of genetic diversity, the devastating effects of the Green Revolution, the pending threat of a WTO promoted intellectual property rights regime and the links to diminishing food security in India.

In late 1996, Navdanya Foods was initiated with the aim of bringing sustainably grown, chemical and pesticide free, healthy and nutritious, diverse organic food to the urban consumer. Navdanya Foods provides only organic food, particularly grains from those indigenous crops threatened by extinction, for example; nutritionally rich amaranth. The program aims to bridge the gap between the small scale farmers who want to continue practising ecological and sustainable agriculture (but needs to be able to support themselves financially) and urban consumers who want to purchase nutritious and safe food for their families.